Ken McGuire

Mark All As Read

I’m gearing up for a Christmas period without internet use. Podcasts will wait, blogs will wait and the world will keep on spinning.

So, over lunch today, I pressed the lovely ‘mark all as read’ button in Google Reader. Sure, I went through all my Irish blog subscriptions, skipping daily links, browsing over the meaty posts and at the end I abandoned every one of my tech blogs, podcast blogs, football blogs, music blogs by pressing that nice grey button at the top of Google Reader.

At least now maybe I’ve a chance to catch up with stuff, or keep abreast of new blog posts. I’ve been swamped in the last fortnight, flat out busy in all directions. I’ve started blogging about Euro 2008, I moved and revamped Liverpool Access (which got re-ranked on request) and behind the scenes I’ve been working more with some local bands and putting spare time into getting a plan of attack together for Devious Theatre next year.

And all the time, the unread messages count in Google Reader keeps climbing, and climbing.

It is likely that the same will happen over Christmas, a week’s worth of activity from some daily news sources can mount up. Not finding the time to pour over all my subscriptions of late I’ve been using Google Alerts, while keeping a daily eye on activity in the land of Jaiku (where I can filter subscriptions people publish).

I’m sure the mobile text alerts will keep me going over the holiday period. While I’m telling myself I’ll nip into town over Christmas for some coffees and an hour or two on the laptop, I’ll likely be more inclined to spend some time on the lake with my new kayak (arriving this Saturday) or spending time in the pub catching up with the McGuire clan.

Mark all as read – just a good a feeling as cleaning your desk before leaving the office for Christmas.